Mapped: Top 10 Countries With The Most Volcanoes

But how many volcanoes does the world possess? 

According to the National Museum of Natural History’s Global Volcanism Program, there are more than 1,500 volcanoes on the planet that have erupted at some point in the last 11,500 years, the current geological epoch otherwise known as the Holocene period.

The majority of these are found in clusters, or strips, mostly following the faultlines of the world’s tectonic plates. For this reason, mapping the world’s volcanoes according to country is slightly misleading, as most are linked to the same geological highway.

The "Ring of Fire" that encircles the Pacific Ocean – which stretches up the west coast of the Americas, around and across to Asia, looping down to the east of Japan, before overwhelming much of Indonesia and the Philippines and whipping around Australasia – boasts the most, with 452.

This is why Indonesia has the third most volcanoes in the world, at 139. The island of Bali has three: Agung, Batur and Buyan-Bratan. Japan comes fourth with 112. Chile (also on the Ring of Fire, on the cusp of the South American plate) is fifth, with 104.

But it is the United States that takes the title with the most, 173, followed by Russia, with 166 – both large countries, and also both on the Ring of Fire.

Another hotspot for volcanoes is on the African continent, where the African Plate meets the Arabian Plate, which is why Kenya (23), Tanzania (10) and Ethiopia (57) boast a wealth of volcanoes. 

source: https://www.travelagentcentral.com/